Local government reforms in Korea: a transition from a marionette performance toward an elementary class day

Abstract

This paper deals with the recent reform-oriented measures in the area of national local policies. The just begun local autonomy in Korea now faces opportunities as well as serious challenges. The new developments are divided into four categories: 1) local politics and autonomy; 2) recent consolidation of local governments; 3) distribution of Government functions ; and 4) financial arrangement. The first section involves difficulties of independent local politics and local autonomy under strong culture of centralism. Local political elites are basically dependent upon the national politicians and the nomination as a candidate for local position is directly influenced by the central political machinery and national politicians. The last local election was severely hurt by national political issues. In addition, local animosties among several regions helped turn the political arrangement back to the old one, furthering the dependency of local politics. Nevertheless, it is evident that a new climate for autonomous governance in local society becomes high-spirited. The second section discusses the strength and weakness of the recent consolidation measures of local government which has been carried out nationwide. Majority of the lower - tier (basic) local governments' boundary have been expanded resulting in 230 local governments in number from 265. The upper-tier (widearea) local governments, whose number is 15, has readjusted their specific boundaries only. It may be claimed to facilitate managerial economies but technical efficiencies of specific local service delivery cannot be improved easily. To the worse, the consolidation cannot guarantee the healthy growth of local democracy. The third section deals with the bureaucratic struggle of government task redistribution after the introduction of local autonomy system. Because there is no clear principle of the division of labour between the three tiers of governments, bureaucratic politics takes larger share of the redistribution game. Although some tasks has been transferred to the local governments, the process seems very slow and the structure is not favorable to the local governments which are in weak position in the tug of war. The last section discusses the recent developments in the area of local tax, central -local financial coordination system in terms of central-local configuration. There are many skeptics who doubt whether local governments will have access to the administrative talents and financial resources essential to run the affairs of the country in truly decentralized way. In fact, there are relatively serious weaknesses in the financial management competence of local government officials. Decentralization advocates, however, assert that local financial resources should be expanded from the present 55% of total government sector money so that local governments carry out their present functions and tasks sufficiently.